The Transfiguration School – Upper Campus, located in lower Manhattan, received a very special visitor – Jonathan Raiola. Jonathan is the Honoree for the Sylvia Center’s Art of Cooking this year, and on his class visit (alongside his family), he took part in the Cooks for Health class by making a tasty curried butternut squash soup. During the cooking process, Jonathan was able to utilize his stellar culinary skills and demonstrated a few cutting techniques before sharing a meal with the students.
The lesson highlighted recipe reading and dissection. Thus everyone went through each step before starting to cook then listed them on the board, noting what ingredients go into the pan and for how long. The class was then divided into six groups to correspond with the six steps in the recipe which produced two pots of soup total.
A package of local apples provided two variety of apples and for fun, the class decided to see if one pot using tart green apples and a second that combined green apple and the sweeter red ones would have a difference in taste. Despite the difference in taste, both versions were equally enjoyed and students were excited to take the dish home to share with their parents. Many had agreed at the beginning of class that they did not like butternut squash while some had never even tried it, but in the end, all were pleased with the finished dish!
